06 August 2018

Dublin

The Family: Hope for the Church and for the World

This is the title of the contribution of Cardinal Farrell to the thick Dossier of Pastoral Life prepared for the World Meeting of Families

If “the family is a factory of hope, the most beautiful thing God has done,” as Pope Francis said in Philadelphia, is making it the sign of the beauty and joy of love (Amoris Laetitia) that “the Church wants to announce to the world through the family: the real possibility for every man to see himself manifest this love in order to believe and grow in the certainty that someone has loved him and continues to love him every day of his life.” Cardinal Farrell indicates the specificity of the Christian faith regarding the reality of marriage and family: “The family is not a Catholic institution, but an anthropological dimension that belongs to all societies and all religions. What the Christian faith adds to the reality of the family is the awareness of its specific mission in the world thanks to the presence of Christ in the nuptial sacrament.

From the family come the assets capable of generating virtuous relationships in society, starting with stability, and in the world of work. If ‘family capital is at the basis of social virtues,’ then the family is the first factor in humanizing people and life in society.”